Guillen irritated at Sox performance, loss to Royals

The warts were showing in an 8-7 stinker against Kansas City. The only beauty mark was that the Twins also lost and stayed a half-game behind the Sox in the Central Division.

Other than that — and a strong performance by Bobby Jenks in a mop-up role — there was very little for 32,269 fans to celebrate at U.S. Cellular Field on Harold Baines Tribute Day.

"We've got to do better than that if we're going to stay in the pennant race," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We're not going to go anywhere pitching like this."

Pitching is a good place to start in explaining this game.

Starter John Danks gave up as many runs in his first 10 pitches — four — as he had in any game since April 9. By the time he left after four innings, his team was behind 6-5.

Guillen said Danks was "kind of awful." Even Danks had to admit, "I did a terrible job of holding leads or getting quick innings so we could build off things."

And even though Sox hitters regained the lead, the bullpen blew it again.

Ah, the bullpen. While statistically the best in the league at day's start, Sox relievers have been scored on in 14 of the last 15 games, during which their ERA is 3.94. On Sunday, the tying and winning runs scored in the eighth inning after runners were put on base by being hit by Octavio Dotel and walked by loser Matt Thornton.

Sox pitchers have allowed 65 runs in the last nine games, an average of more than seven per game, all to Kansas City and Texas. And guess who arrives for a three-game set Monday? Texas.

Of course, pitching wasn't the only sore point Sunday in the second straight loss to the Royals.

"Kansas City showed up to kick our butt, and they did," Guillen said. "They played better."

The offense pounded out 15 hits, including home runs by Joe Crede and Nick Swisher, but also left 10 runners on base. Three were stranded in the first inning when Crede struck out, two in the sixth when Brian Anderson struck out and two in the eighth when Jim Thome struck out.

The Sox also had the potential tying run thrown out at home in the eighth when coach Jeff Cox waved home A.J. Pierzynski on Anderson's single. He was out so far that he didn't even slide.

The news was made even worse when Jermaine Dye was hit in the right knee by a Horacio Ramirez pitch and crumpled at the plate. He was helped off the field. X-rays were negative, but Dye is expected to miss at least Monday's game and perhaps all of the Texas series.

After Sox reliever D.J. Carrasco threw at the knees of Billy Butler with his first pitch, a warning was issued to both benches, which did not please Guillen.

"I don't like the way they are hitting my players," he said. "They hit [five] guys this week, and all of a sudden we get a warning."

The bottom line?

"We played terrible," Guillen said. "A lot of people look at Minnesota and Detroit, but we should look at ourselves."